Getting Away With Murder: The Strange Case Of Do Trieu, New Zealand.

You will have probably noticed that unsolved murders can seem, from the outside, easily solvable. Here we have a 68 year old father and grandfather who just vanishes. Then people who should have reported him missing don’t and attempts are made to access his accounts. I mean with a small pool of suspects how can a case like that not be resolved? It happens, as we know, all the time.

This Vietnamese refugee made his home here in New Zealand. He worked as a taxi driver for a long time and was on his second marriage by 2008. He went on holiday on 18th August that year with his wife and some friends. They headed up to Rotorua and Taupo from Mt Cook, Wellington. That is a distance of 460 km ( 280 miles).

Three weeks later his daughter contacted Do Trieu’s wife because she had not heard from him.  She was told the party came back from Rotorua on 20th August. The day after Do Trieu had gone to Auckland on business. All should have been well then?

Chi Nguyen ( his wife) reassured his daughter. She had talked to her husband on the phone while he was in the capital. No worries there.

Unfortunately there was a lot to be concerned about. The attempt to get money out of his account happened in Wellington two days after he was last seen. He had one passport and that had not been used to leave the country and in less than three months his wife was out of there. She went back to Vietnam. I also should mention he has not been since and his cell phone was last used on 20th August 2008.

Do Trieu was a missing person until 2013 when a review upgraded his case to one of homicide. The police believe that he did not get far from his apartment complex on Rolleston Street before he was killed.

Who goes to Auckland on business yet does not take their phone? Who goes to Auckland and leaves their bank cards back home? Maybe someone who never went to Auckland?

The victim’s daughter, Hanh Trieu, and the family are very vocal about finding Do Trieu. They say the bank cards he used were always in his pocket and his young wife has been accessing his accounts from Vietnam. Police have said that they have been given information that strongly supports the theory that Do Trieu was murdered.

When it comes down to it you have to have evidence. Time and time again it all looks straight forward. He was last seen with a specific group of people. He is no more, so they have to have the answer. Knowing where the answer is and getting it are of course two separate things sometimes. It is like the cases of Robin Pope, Kirsa Jensen, Patti Adkins and Angela Barlow. You look at the circumstances and it is hard not to scream ‘ It Is Obvious.’  Then again is anything ever truly obvious?

Tina N

Notes: On the police website it says that Mr Trieu was married four times. In the below article it refers to Chi Nguyen as his young second wife. 

https://www.police.govt.nz/stolenwanted/coldcase/2019/do-trieu-operation-dustin-wellington-2008

https://www.newshub.co.nz/nznews/family-of-cold-case-victim-do-trieu-speaks-out-2013090716